What is Applied Field Experience?
During the Master of International Studies program, Rotary World Peace Fellows undertake 130 hours of Applied Field Experience with a host organisation.
During the course of the Applied Field Experience, Fellows are expected to work on a specific project based on the Fellow's specific area of interest and the needs of the host organisation.
Class IV ( December 2006 - Feburary 2007)
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Leah Aylward
Internship at United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America (ECLAC) in Santiago, Chile.
Position.
ECLAC is one of five regional commissions of the United Nations. My internship focused on researching social and economic aspects of the 1996 Guatemalan Peace Accords that are specifically related to rural development, agriculture and the indigenous population.
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John Foster
Institue for Justice Sector Development (IJSD) The Hague, Netherlands
Position
IJSD is a non-profit organization that is developing international standards for setting up war crimes tribunals in post-conflict countries. I wrote profiles on the legal sectors of various Latin American countries as well as reports on judicial sector development projects that had been undertaken in those countries.
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Mayumi Futamura
Tarayana Foundation
Position
Webmaster and photographer
I decided to go to Bhutan when I saw the interview of Jigmi Thinley, home and cultural affairs minister of Bhutan, in the BBC feature Happiness Formula. He said, "When happiness is the ultimate desire of every human individual, why is it that no other country applies this as the basis for polity, for programs, for resource allocation?" (Easton 2006) Tarayana Foundation is a non-profit organization, working to uplift and enhance the lives of people in rural communities in Bhutan. Throughout my stay in Bhutan, my main task was to redesign the Tarayana website. Updating the content was the main problem for them, as they did not have a regular paid staff to do so. I created a php website and set up a MySQL database with a browser-based input system so that they could update the website content on their own in a timely manner. I also travelled to some Tarayana project sites in rural Bhutan -- places that are only accessible on foot -- and took photographs for the web site.
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Mneesha Gellman
The Khmer Institute of Democracy (KID), Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Position
Conflict Resolution Trainer
KID is a Cambodian-run NGO with the mission to foster democratic values in Cambodian society through a variety of capacity building activities while maintaining political neutrality. I designed a conflict resolution training curriculum for a volunteer network of Citizen Advisors supported by KID who are resource people in their communities. These volunteers go through a series of trainings on issues ranging from land law and domestic violence prevention to administrative law and conflict mediation strategies to better assist their communities in developing healthy social practices around conflictual issues.
http://www.bigpond.com.kh/users/kid/index.htm |
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Sallie Lacy
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)
Position
Intern in the Financial and Technical Support Unit
As an intern, I was tasked with researching possibilities for developing countries to gain access to climate change adaption funds. Our team also gathered information on the energy supply and demand of individual countries and researched the involvement of private banks in climate change finance as part of a larger goal of devising the post-2012 strategy to the Kyoto Protocol.
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Lóa Magnúsdóttir
UNICEF Pacific, Fiji
From November 15th 2006 to February 15th 2007 I worked as an intern with UNICEF Pacific. My task was to strengthen the organisation’s emergency preparedness plans, by reviewing the current plans and identifying possible projects and materials needed to enhance UNICEF’s response to emergencies in the Pacific. The internship was a great learning experience and the Pacific island environment was a brilliant added bonus.
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Akiko Okudaira
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Field Office for Mae Sot, Thailand
Position
Intern – Refugee Protection (Resettlement)
From November 2006 to February 2007, I undertook a three-month internship with UNHCR on the north-western border of Thailand between Myanmar (Burma), during which I was mainly engaged in the process of assisting in resettling the encamped Myanmar refugees to third countries. Working in the extremely complex environment on the border region was a challenging endeavour, but I was offered a truly hands-on experience to take part in the protection work of UNHCR.
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Opira Robert Hardy
Amnesty International in Zambia
Position
I volunteered with Amnesty International in Lusaka, Zambia from November 2006 to February 2007. This was a very exiting opportuity to gain practical experience and to integrate what we learned at the university into practice. I worked very closely with the Executive Director and my role cut across the different activities of the organization. First, i coordinated human rights campaign activities of all students, youth and Amnesty Groups in Eastern Provice. I worked clsely with the volunteers in the areas of children and women rights campaign, death penalty campaign, small arms control campaign, and Zimbabwe Action Plan campaign. My primary interest was to look at the issues of small arms in Zambia that is surrounded by countries that experienced the worsed conflicts in the world (Mozambique, Angola, Zimbabwe, DR Congo, and Namibia)as well as the existing laws governing the possession and use of small arms in the country.
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Vadim Ostrovsky
United Nations Development Program & ClickUkraine
My internship consisted of two parts. In the first half of my AFE, I worked with HIV/AID Regional Program for Arab States, a program under the umbrella of the United Nations Development Program in Cairo, Egypt. I assisted HARPAS team with planning and executing CHAHAMA, first Arab Religious Leaders Network Responding to AIDS in the Middle East. After the end of CHAHAMA, I assisted HARPAS team with the AIDS Business Coalition in the Arab Region (ABCAR). This project serves as a regional business network for sharing knowledge and scaling-up the HIV/AIDS response including provision of services and supplies, business expertise, advocacy and financial support. For the second part of my AFE, I worked for ClickUkraine program. It is my non-profit project that I have run since 2003. ClickUkraine's main goal is to provide technological capabilities to Ukrainian foster children. Thus far, the program has succeeded in establishing two computer labs and delivering over 600 training hours of basic computer education modules to over 30 foster children in two foster homes in Ukraine. My main goal during the AFE was to conduct a technology survey for the incoming shipment of computers.
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Amanda Rader
Youth Action Nepal (YOAC), Kathmandu Nepal.
Position
YOAC's goal is "to create pro-human rights, democratic and just society through active youth participation from local to national to international level". I contributed to YOAC's organization and implementation of the first ever Nepal Youth Social Forum which attracted the participation of over 1400 young people from around Nepal. In addition, Iassisted in grant-writing processes and shared in vision-building with Nepali peacebuilding colleagues. Particularly due to the energetic, intimate and informal atmosphere of the organization, I was able to become well-incorporated into the YOAC office and have a meaningful, impactful and deep educational experience.
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Perth Rosen
International Organisation for Migrantion, Costa Rica
Position
I spent my Applied Field Experience (AFE) with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in San Jose, Costa Rica where I was assigned to the counter-human trafficking unit. Over a three month period I supported efforts in two main areas; data collation, processing, and compilation of victims-of-trafficking cases, and, the design of a survey instrument for a pilot project focused on prevention and protection of trafficking victims. In addition to the above projects I collaborated in the design of a project in support of ‘mobile persons and HIV’. The project targeted the areas most heavily traveled along the Honduran, Salvadorian and Guatemalan migration route and aimed to increase tri-national collaboration on issues related to migrant health.
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Etsuko Teranishi
European Centre for Conflict Prevention (ECCP), International Secretariat of the Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict (GPPAC), The Hague, The Netherlands
Position
Knowledge Generation and Sharing program
The AFE at the ECCP was mainly working on Knowledge Generation and Sharing program as one of the five crucial programs of the Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict (GPPAC), which produces and shares knowledge from different parts of the world throughout the fifteen regional GPPAC network. I was involved in researching on peace activities at the grassroots level around the world and assisting logistics of a conference on peace education. I was also in charge of data base management in the library at the ECCP. Overall, the AFE was a very practical experience at the international level and gave me a great opportunity to fill in the gap between theory and practice in the area of peace and conflict resolution. Moreover, this experience gave me confidence and solid commitment on working for peace in the future.
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MJ (Mandi) Vuinovich
International Organization for Migration
Position
Australia Cultural Orientation Education Assistant
While interning in Cairo with the International Organization for Migration I primarily worked with refugees from the Middle East and North Africa. The primary focus of my division was cultural education and orientation for outbound refugees headed for their new homes in the U.S., Canada or Australia. This practical experience complimented my academic work in the field of forced migration offering an educational balance that prepares me for further educational or professional opportunities.
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Class III (December 2005 - Feburary 2006)
Larissa Bruun
I 'volunteered' three months with UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) in Pakistan. I arrived in the country only three weeks after the devastating earthquake that struck the north- western parts of Pakistan on 8 October. Two days after my arrival I was asked to join one of the UNHCR emergency teams in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province. I joined the team in Mansehra in the earthquake affected areas as a 'reporting officer' but like everyone else in the emergency, I also did a whole lot of other tasks (coordination with other organisations, coordinating and monitoring implementing partners work, monitoring distribution of non food items (such as blankets, mattresses, tents etc.), monitoring registrations, visits to camps for internally displaced people and visiting villages, and some administrative tasks at times).
Karla Castellenous
Host organisation: Shanti Ashram, India
Jude Ewing
Position: UN Humanitarian Affairs Officer - Cluster Coordination Unit
Very briefly, my position as a Humanitarian Affairs Officer in UN OCHA Cluster Coordination Unit allowed me to observe all aspects of the disaster management of the UN earthquake relief effort in Pakistan, from the top political level to active field operations. I was given free reign to visit, learn and even contribute as much as possible to the management of the relief mission. This involved, amongst many other tasks in Islamabad and the four field hubs, participation in and facilitation of the intensive management and policy coordination meetings for the 10 different relief 'clusters', (Health, Shelter, Security, Water & Sanitation, etc). I also conducted detailed organisational analyses of several aspects of the cluster coordination, innovated a cluster tool kit and jargon buster, assisted in the policy and mission plan generation for the transition from relief to recovery, developed the victim 'Return' section of the UN website, contributed to the High Altitude Assessment Teams (HAT) coordination and assisted in the distribution of relief in several camps. Two particular highlights were the accompanying a Pakistani national HAT team high into the Himalayas and discovering several villages that had not received any aid and distributing relief, as well as time spent immunising children against Polio, courtesy of the Pakistani Government, UNICEF and Rotary International. I was also involved in the mediation of several inter-personnel disputes. While in Pakistan I also attended and spoke at the Rotary District 3270's conference in Karachi and several Islamabad Rotary meetings.
Arie Gutler-Ofir
Host organisation:
Santosh Mehra
Host Organizations:
- Transparency International-Thailand , Bangkok
- Crime and Misconduct Commission-Brisbane, Australia
The first phase of my AFE was in Bangkok with TI-Thailand from 14th November to 17th December. TI-Thailand is a small organization which is in the process of finding its feet and charting out clear objectives for itself. The organization undertakes campaigns on a regular basis in Thailand to generate awareness about corruption and to mobilize public opinion against fighting it. During my tenure there, I prepared a report for them on the mechanics of corruption globally in the UN sponsored Oil-For-Food program in Iraq. I also assisted them in conducting comparative research and furnishing material for developing National Integrity Indices for Thailand. I was also closely involved in the organization of Anti-Corruption Day function which is celebrated in Thailand on 7th December each year.
During my stay in Bangkok I called upon the former Rotary International President Mr. Bhichai Rattakul. I also attended a joint meeting of Thai and French Rotary senior representatives chaired by him for the review of tsunami relief.
AFE with CMC Brisbane
My AFE with CMC was an exhilarating adventure that spanned over 9 weeks. The breakup of my stay with the different units of CMC is as follows:
- Complaints and Monitoring Cell: This cell deals with the receipt and assessment of complaints from general public on matters relating to corruption and misconduct in different government departments of Queensland. The unit also monitors investigations done by the vigilance units of different departments and also provides them with oversight and directions. I was closely involved in the performance of these tasks in this unit.
- Investigation unit: This is the most high profile unit of CMC. It conducts investigations and inquiries into scandals, scams, media exposures, and other matters of public importance in Queensland. The highlights of my 3 weeks stint in the investigation unit were :
1. Attending review meeting of Dr. Jayant Patel’s (Dr. Death) case.
2. Investigation into the Gold Coast Councillors scandal.
3. Online tracking of paedophiliacs
- Research and Prevention Unit
This unit undertakes studies and conducts Research and Analysis of the structure and function of different government departments/ projects/ programs and gives recommendation for long term/institutional improvements. I was involved in meetings focused in review of police beats and patrols, adult entertainment, and impact of drugs on the youth.
Godfrey Mulkai
Host organisation: African Centre for Constructive Resolution of Disputes (ACCORD) - Durban, South Africa
Fernanda Salina
From November 21st 2005 to February 10th 2006 I worked at CASIN as a Research and Training Officer in different projects. One of them was the III Professional Training Programme for Officials from Afghanistan on Issues on Public International Law. Assisting the coordinators of this program gave me the opportunity not only to learn more about the situation in Afghanistan but also to participate in the dynamic of capacity building of first track diplomacy actors. The reconstruction of Afghanistan requires not only humanitarian aid but more importantly to empower their people to make possible the creation of a democratic state. Through these training programs, CASIN in cooperation with the Swiss Development Cooperation Agency (SDC) is playing a fundamental role.
While in Switzerland, I was invited by the Rotary Club Zurich Turicum, to talk about the Rotary World Peace Fellowship.
Maiko Shimzu
I mainly worked for Election Dispute Resolution (EDR) Project. I did some country research, planned the global survey and created the survey questionnaire. Whether the country has a reliable EDR mechanism or not could have a great impact on the electoral integrity and the stability of the society in case of serious election disputes (eg. Uganda, Philippines). In EDR project, we attempt to sort out the types of resolution mechanisms around the world and show the advantages and disadvantages of each mechanism. I am now coordinating their global survey from Australia, and we are hoping to publish the EDR handbook next year.
Alessandro Souza
During my AFE I worked in the department of International Humanitarian Law of the Queensland Division of the Australian Red Cross, mainly with the analysis and promotion of the new improvements in the Geneva Conventions - the third protocol which established the Red Crystal as a symbol for humanitarian work of the organisation. During the period I worked as well within the department giving support to the tracing services, another part of its humanitarian work, where Red Cross using its structure tries to match persons who were missed in area of conflict. This project recently was developed trough the African Settlement Program.
Sukthawee Suwannachairop
For my AFE, I went to Dharamsala, home of the Dalai Lama and his government-in-exile where I was committed to work with the Department of Information and International Relations in producing a documentary with its officers. After two months of working and drinking Chai when the electricity went off for hours or days, I managed to make “The Tibetans’ Middle Way” a half-hour video documentary. It looks at Tibetans living in exile and their approaches to a struggle for freedom and economic development. The theme of the film is the Tibet issue and Buddhism's middle way principle.
Pedro Delgado Hinostroza
Host organisation:
Caitlin Fitzpatrick
Host organisation:
Leah Klass
Host organisation:
Class II (December 2004 - January 2005)
Brian Adams
Host organisation: Middle East Mediation training, Cyprus
Yoshio Chikamatsui
Host organisation: Schooling in Tanzania Project, Africia and Japan
Noelle DePape
Host organisation:
Seeds of Peace Project, India & Pakistan.
Class II (December 2003 - January 2004)
Matthew Bright
Host organisation: Save the Children, Mozambique
Located on the lower east coast of southern Africa, Mozambique gained independence from Portuguese colonial rule in 1975. The country soon descended into a brutal civil war that killed nearly 1 million people and devastated the national economy and infrastructure. The civil war ended with the assistance of the United Nations in 1992 and Mozambique has been slowly recovering ever since. Land mines are still a major problem in Mozambique, and developmental progress has also been hampered by severe weather events, notably the cyclonic flooding in 2000 and 2001 and a recent drought.
Mozambique also suffers from a high prevalence of HIV/AIDS, with the national rate of infection nearing 17%, up to 20% in some of the high risk corridors. My internship in Mozambique was to assist the Save the Children /US office with four main tasks for the 30 days I was in country.
I. Developed, wrote, and submitted a project proposal for SC/US to the United States Agency for International Development's (USAID) emergency wing, the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA). The proposal addressed a provincial water shortage brought on by three years of erratic weather patterns. The project was envisioned to last for 6 months, creating or improving water access for over 77,020 individuals in 27 communities throughout the province, with a total budget of US $257,775. The three main objectives of the project were (1) to drill 10 new wells and rehabilitate 25 others to increase the availability and access to water and decrease the time and energy required for procuring water at the household level (2) build local capacity for water source maintenance and fee collection for long-term impact and sustainability, and (3) educate the targeted schools and communities in safe hygiene and water resource management to promote proper habits and reduce unsafe practices.
II. Improved existing provincial systems of emergency coordination by working closely with the SC/US Gaza team, the emergency systems coordinator, and the Instituto Nacional de Gestao das Calamidades (INGC from the Portuguese - meaning the National Institute for the Management of Disasters).
III. Perform a follow up analysis of the emergency operations review in food commodity management carried out by Mohammed Idris, a regional SC/US specialist. This analysis was delivered directly to SC/US senior management and prioritized areas in commodity management and programmatic integrity to be addressed by the agency.
IV. Supported other program development activities including the
finalization and analysis of the complexities of targeted orphan and vulnerable children/ home based care (OVC/HBC) for AIDS feeding programs, and partial documentation of striking case studies.
Francesca Del Mese
Host organisation:
UN Serious Crimes Unit, East Timor and Sierra Leone
In 2003 Francesca travelled to East Timor twice, where she spent time with the UN Serious Crimes Unit assisting in the preparation of indictments against crimes against humanity suspects. In November 2004 she travelled to Sierra Leone in West Africa, where she worked in the hybrid UN Special Court for Sierra Leone. She spent time as a lawyer present dealing with one of the 9 suspects in custody, investigating and preparing the case for trial. She spent time in the high security prison and interviewing Sierra Leonean suspects and potential witnesses.
Francesca is British / Italian and has travelled extensively, as well as having undertaken a great deal of voluntary work. This includes having worked with gypsies and former prisoners in Eastern Europe, working with people with severe mental and physical handicaps, and organising holidays for young adults from underprivileged backgrounds.
During January and February 2004, I completed a six-week internship with Education for Peace in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. EFP helps schools integrate "principles of peace" into their existing curriculum. The organisation also hosts local and national peace events that provide students with the opportunity to demonstrate the principles they have learned using drama, art, music or poetry. EFP has received much encouragement from the Bosnian government. After a two-year pilot project involving 400 teachers and 6,000 students, the government has asked EFP to develop a strategy for implementation in all of the country's schools.
My specific task at EFP was to develop a new fundraising initiative called Peace Bank that will enable students from around the world to raise money so that more students in post-conflict areas can participate in EFP programmes. The initiative also is designed to create a meaningful exchange relationship between these groups of students. With the sponsorship of my host Rotary Club, Brisbane Mid-City, Peace Bank will be piloted in several Brisbane schools starting in 2005.
Path Heang
Host organisation:
Cambodia Institute for Cooperation and Peace
I did my internship in Cambodia from December 2003 to January 2004 with Cambodia Institute for Cooperation and Peace (CICP). CICP is an NGO working to promote dialogues among various actors on issues of peace, democracy, civil society, security, foreign policy, conflict resolution, economics and national development.
During my internship project I looked at security issues in Southeast Asia region. Specifically, I examined the possibility of establishing ASEAN Security Community (ASC). Recently, leaders of ASEAN member states have agreed to pursuit the establishment of ASEAN Community by 2020. The ASC is one of the pillars supporting ASEAN Community; the other being ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) and ASEAN Socio-cultural Community (ASCC). Security community is not a new concept. However, in retrospect, such community could exist only in developed world. Therefore, to apply the concept in the developing world is interestingly unprecedented. In my internship paper I pointed out the main challenges being faced by ASEAN member states in realizing this initiative.
Apart from this project I voluntarily helped Working Group for Weapons Reduction (WGWR) in reviewing its program activities and touring its visitors from UN Department for Disarmament Affairs (UNDDA) and Hague Appeal for Peace. I also assisted my former ILO project in reviewing conciliation and arbitration manuals. Finally, I accompanied and assisted delegates of Rotary Inter-Country Medicare Project for one week during their two-week mission to Cambodia to provide free medical treatments, surgeries, and consultations to the Cambodian poor.
Ryan Hendy completed an internship under the overall guidance of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) in Freetown, Sierra Leone in early 2004. In support of UNAMSIL’s Office of Public Information, Ryan conducted an information-gathering expedition that examined the current countrywide state of law and order through interviews of key law enforcement chiefs, disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration personnel, UNAMSIL civilian and military staff and local civilians. His assignment eventually took him to the alluvial diamond mines of the Eastern Province. Here, accompanied by local journalists and UNAMSIL personnel, Ryan investigated the role that diamond-rich Kono District currently plays in establishing sustainable peace within the region. Back in Freetown, Ryan also supported UNAMSIL military observers, provided logistical assistance as a volunteer at an amputee camp and attended weekly Rotary meetings.
Amy Kay
Host organisation:
Hope for Children & HIV/AIDS Regional Program in the Arab States
I decided to create a project that covered two programs over the summer both dealing with HIV/AIDS in two very different contexts. In my first project, I went to Ethiopia and worked with a documentary photographer, Eric Grottsman and his wife Sara Greene. There I worked with a grassroots organization ‘Hope for Children’ that works with about 200 children in several Addis Ababa neighborhoods who have been orphaned due to their parents dying of AIDS. Ethiopia has the second highest rate of AIDS orphans in the world, currently estimated at 1.2 million. In addition 230,000 children are estimated to be living with HIV/AIDS. While in Ethiopia, I was invited to take part in Eric’s project, in which he put cameras in the hands of kids who were living with AIDS (as orphans or infected with HIV) to help them document their own experiences with HIV/AIDS. I also put together a class at HFC and helped organize a major conference dealing with AIDS orphans in Addis Ababa.
I then went to Cairo to work on an HIV/AIDS project in Egypt. I had lived in Cairo for 2 and a half years before moving to Brisbane, and had worked for several NGOs including Egypt’s National Council for Women. This time, I worked with a new program through the UNDP, the HIV/AIDS Regional Program in the Arab States (HARPAS). This program was established in 2001 and covers 18 countries in the Middle East/North Africa (MENA) region. Unlike Ethiopia and the surrounding region in the Horn of Africa, the MENA region is considered a low prevalence region, with less than 800,000 reported cases of HIV infection. However, this low infection rate is combined with high risk factors including a culture of silence and stigma surrounding the disease. The HARPAS program is thus, geared towards creating an awareness of HIV/AIDS by ‘breaking the silence’ surrounding HIV/AIDS. I worked with the director of the HARPAS program on media strategy and outreach initiatives. This included project development for mobilizing religious leadership in the region to help stem the spread of AIDS related stigma and discrimination. I also developed a gender proposal with the HARPAS team to reach women with education and messages that targeted women and girls.
Sophia Knöchel Ledberg
Host organisation:
Australian Strategic Policy Institute, Australia
From the end of November to the end of December 2003, Sofia Knoechel Ledberg undertook an internship with the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) in Canberra. ASPI was established as an independent research institute by the Australian government in 2001. Its aim is to promote Australia's security by providing new ideas to strategic policymaking and thereby help the government make better-informed decisions. Another part of ASPI's work is to inform the public discussion on defense, strategic and security issues.
During Sofia's time in Canberra, she was involved in ASPI's Outreach Program and its Australian University Academic Network. The aim of this network is to narrow the distance between academic scholars and policymakers and it has been developed in consultation with University of Queensland and Griffith University. One of the starting points for this project was a workshop on Northeast Asian Security, held in Brisbane in October last year. This event brought together academics from several Australian universities as well as representatives from the Department for Foreign Affairs and Trade and ASPI. Since it was known by then that Sofia was to undertake an internship with ASPI, she was invited to participate in some of the workshop sessions. The workshop was later followed up by an ASPI publication, written by Professor William Tow and Associate Professor Russell Trood from Griffith University. This monograph was published in June 2004.
Noting Sofia's personal interest in, and previous knowledge of, China and Northeast Asia, it was decided that her internship at ASPI would be undertaken within the framework of the UQ-ASPI workshop on Northeast Asian security. During the four weeks at ASPI, she contributed to this project in different ways. She did some basic background research on issues such as Australia's diplomatic relations with Taiwan and the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the Australia – China – United States triangular security dilemma. Sofia also provided 'in-depth' information on some issues of importance for a comprehensive understanding of the regional security challenges, including the historical legacy of the Taiwan Strait dilemma, Japan's Peace Constitution and Australia's trade with Northeast Asia. In addition, she proofread documents submitted by the participants of the October workshop. These documents are available on ASPI's homepage.
Rebecca Milligan
Host organisation:
Regugees Status Determination Unit ( United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees), Egypt
Rebecca pursued a combination of language training and an internship for her applied field experience. She traveled to Cairo, Egypt where she studied Arabic and assisted the Refugees Status Determination Unit (RSD) at the
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR-Cairo). Rebecca underwent a brief orientation session on the UNHCR Mandate, human rights law affecting refugee status determination, various conventions relating to the status of refugees, interviewing techniques, assessment writing and country of origin information. After shadowing a few interviews and assisting other interviewers in their assessment writing by following up on research requests, she began to conduct interviews with asylum seekers from Sudan and assess to what extent their claims qualified them to receive refugee status.
Several factors motivated Rebecca to pursue her Applied Field Experience with UNHCR-Cairo. Firstly, she wanted to gain exposure to the field of refugee protection at the United Nations level. As of 2001, UNHCR-Cairo became the largest office for RSD in the world. Observing an office with such a heavy workload as UNHCR’s in Cairo provided Rebecca with the opportunity to assess how UNHCR adheres to its own guidelines in a high-pressure work environment. Working in a busy high-paced field office allowed Rebecca to gain practical experience as opposed to working in a headquarters where most of her tasks would have been administrative. Finally, in recent years UNHCR-Cairo has been the subject of international criticism for many of its policies affecting asylum seekers. Refugee applicants to UNHCR-Cairo have met with fluctuating success rates over the past four years. This phenomenon has attracted international attention because the fluctuating recognition rates have been dramatic and have had no immediately obvious explanation. Thus, an internship with UNHCR-Cairo enabled Rebecca to assess to what extent these criticisms were valid and what efforts had been made to rectify them.
Christian Oakes
Host organisation:
Habitat for Humanity International, USA
In deciding where to spend my internship, an important factor was my interest in development work and, more specifically, housing, which led me to pursue a position with Habitat for Humanity International. My goal was to gain a better understanding of how Habitat for Humanity International functions in general, what role does it play in facilitating self-help housing or shelter improvement in an urban setting, and what are the features that have made it so successful in both North America and, more recently, in many developing parts of the world. My work was with a Habitat affiliate located in the frigid Northeastern part of the United States, Habitat for Humanity of Greater Boston, which covers the metropolitan Boston area within the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.